Blogs and Commentary

NCAA Division III Notebook

When it made the trip literally across the street to play
Cabrini last year in the first round of the NCAA tournament,
Eastern had the same hopes as any team in the tournament. When the
Eagles scored the first goal of the game less than two minutes into
the contest, optimism was running high.

Alas, when the Cavaliers responded with a goal six seconds
later, which was the first in a 14-goal run for Cabrini, head coach
Kevin Wallace and his team realized that day would not end well.
The Eagles' first postseason dalliance ended with a 19-3 loss,
although the trip home was mercifully short.

Looking back on that game, Wallace sees the glass half full.

"It was the best thing that could ever happen to us," said
Wallace, who is now in his second year as the Eagles head man.
"Obviously we didn't like the result, but that made our guys
hungrier and work harder in the offseason. We had guys who live in
California fly in two weeks prior to school because they wanted to
get back going again. Having that taste was definitely huge for our
program and our guys, and I think that's what is propelling us this
far into the season."

Eastern is in a different spot this year. Last year, it grabbed
the automatic qualifying bid from the unified MAC, but this year's
split has changed everything. While the MAC Commonwealth has an AQ,
the Freedom subset does not and won't have one until the 2015
campaign. That means that the Eagles are operating in the wild
world of Pool B. They're looking good at this point with a 12-2
record, although with only one win against a team with a winning
record, Eastern is eyeing a rough first round match-up.

A win in either of the two games that Eastern has lost this year
— a 12-11 overtime setback to Gettysburg and a 7-3 loss to
Ursinus — and they'd be feeling a lot better, but they still
took something away from them.

"The Gettysburg game proved to our guys that we can play with
anyone," Wallace said. "It was a team that knew how to win versus a
team learning how to win. We know how to win now, and we expect to
win. That overtime loss was tough, because we expected to win that
game. We had our chance in overtime; we had the ball first but
couldn't come through.

"Ursinus was our third game in five days. We beat them last year
and they were pretty upset and they wanted it more than we did. We
had a ton of turnovers and it was a team I didn't recognize.
Fortunately, we haven't played that way again. It was a good
refocus game. We got caught, and we've learned from it."

Like many other teams that try to break through to the next
level, scheduling has been a thorn in Wallace's side. He is trying
to improve the slate incrementally every year — the Eagles
keep Gettsyburg and add Haverford next year — but with
another year in Pool B, he has to keep an eye on criteria. As such,
Colorado College, Ferrum and Greensboro will also be on the
sked.

"We would definitely like to get the Salisburys, Stevensons,
Roanokes, Lynchburgs and Cortlands of the world," Wallace said.
"I'd love to play those teams, but they are booked so far in
advance, it's going to be at least a couple of more years before we
get them."

As for this year, the MAC Freedom title is just a formality. But
the Eagles could make some noise in the postseason. They have a
top-flight goalie in Aaron Benz (65.5 sv%, 6.39 GAA) and an
athletic defensive middie, Ron Johnson, who Wallace says, "is like
having a fifth long pole on the field." Grant Ferguson (43g, 15a),
Chris Farrar (23g, 34a) and Zac Ivy (24g, 17a) comprise an
experienced attack that Wallace says is the best the Eagles have
ever had.

Even though he is just 27 — one of the younger head
coaches in Division III — and with just two years experience
as a head man, Wallace is a confident guy. He's a perfect fit for
an ambitious program with aspirations that will be challenging to
meet. They'll be working out of Pool B for this year and next, but
one gets the feeling that there is a vast amount of latent
potential for the Eagles to tap into over the next three
seasons.

- Just in case you haven't been keeping up since the last time
we spoke, here's a rundown of the ranked teams that have lost
during the past week: No. 5 Salisbury, No. 6 Stevens, No. 7 Tufts,
No. 9 Washington College, No. 10 Lynchburg, No. 12 Washington
College, No. 15 Franklin & Marshall and No. 16 Widener. And,
with the exception of Salisbury, all of the losses have come
against conference opponents.

What does it mean? It's the weekly USILA poll, so not much. But
if we switch over to the all-important regional polls, which
were released for the first time last week, there were some
interesting developments. In the North, five of the 14 ranked teams
took a loss and in the South, seven of 16 teams were dealt defeats.
I won't call it unprecedented because I'm not entirely sure, but
it's undoubtedly an epic turn of events.

One team in each region catches my eye. Nazareth's rout of
formerly No. 6 (and No. 3 regionally) Stevens is important. The
Flyers were already No. 8 in the region, and now they'll certainly
move up. Naz also controls its own fate in regards to getting the
No. 1 seed in the E8, as well (if they can beat Fisher and Elmira).
In the South, Gettysburg, which entered the weekend with a No. 11
regional ranking, whitewashed regional No. 8 Washington College.
The Bullets have far less leverage than Naz, as the losses to
Widener and unranked Muhlenberg sting, but there's no underselling
the strength of Gettysburg's schedule. It's going to be
interesting.

- The quarterfinal winners in the SAA tournament won their games
by an average score of 22-5. Centre, Sewanee, Birmingham-Southern
and Berry all advanced to the semifinals. Still plenty of moving
parts, but the SAA is in good shape to grab at least one of the
Pool B bids...he may be off the radar a little bit, but one Coach
of the Year candidate to keep in mind is University of New
England's Charlie Burch. The long-time Maine high school coach has
guided the Nor'Easters to an 11-4 record with victories over
Endicott and Colby so far...speaking of Endicott, it was a rough
week for the Gulls.

- Arcadia notched the first MAC win in program history by
downing Manhattanville, 10-6, on Wednesday...Josh Frey scored five
goals and set up a sixth, helping Bridgewater top Shenandoah, 10-8,
for the Eagles' first ODAC triumph...congrats to Lebanon Valley
junior Malik Pedroso, who netted his 100th career goal in the
Dutchmen's 12-6 win over Messiah...Vincent Manasia scored six goals
against Mt. St. Mary, helping Richard Stockton grab the last spot
in the Skyline tourney...Plattsburgh tied the program record for
wins with the 11th triumph over Brockport...DeSales 20-6 victory
over FDU-Florham was the Bulldogs first-ever win over the
Devils...Christopher Newport remains in the Pool B discussion,
Ferrum is out...Albright registered its first win against a ranked
opponent when it beat No. 16 Widener in overtime.

- Rob Kunz scored three goals and set up three others, helping
Potsdam defeat Geneseo, 11-10...Casey Balzer scored a career-high
five goals in Oswego's 15-10 victory over Oneonta...both St.
Lawrence and RIT are guaranteed to be one of the top two seeds in
the Liberty tourney. This weekend's clash between the pair will
determine who is the top dog...as if RIT needed another weapon,
sophomore Eddie Kiesa scored a career-high six goals in the rout of
Skidmore...Marywood's Riley Dobel broke his own school record for
single-game goals with eight in the 26-11 rout of Immaculata.